Boardwalk Empire: Paul Williams vs Sergio Martinez Preview & Prediction
After the bluff and bluster from this past weekend, boxing gets serious on Saturday as two of the very best fighters in the business clash for the middleweight championship of the world. South Carolina’s Paul “The Punisher” Williams takes on Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez from Quilmes, Buenos Aires in an Atlantic City follow up to one of 2009’s contests of the year.
Fight fans who’ve grown accustomed to picking over optical illusions presented to them as eye candy (rather than the tacky irritants they invariably reveal themselves to be) can rest easy. This is about as legit as a boxing match gets, although, the bean counters have slung in a curve ball just to keep everyone on their toes.
In December of last year, Williams and Martinez fought each other to a standstill over 12 rounds at light middleweight. It was a classic encounter, one which featured both southpaws clambering off the deck in the opening round before dusting off their pants to engage in a seesawing and exhilarating thriller.
Williams had flown out of the blocks that night, looking to run Sergio clean out of the ring with a suffocating punch output delivered from his unusually high vantage point. Martinez hopped onto his bicycle, evading his aggressive pursuer whilst sitting down on his shots whenever Williams forced himself into range, smashing the big man flush with walloping left and right counter hooks, punches which whizzed home with superior speed and pop.
Williams soon began overreaching with his punches, keen to rub out the Argentinean’s ever growing threat, yet he played into Sergio’s hands in his eagerness. Time and again Martinez would measure the giant’s ragged assaults, slamming him with head spinning volleys. Williams, though, refused to change tack, give ground or give in. The resulting donnybrook elevated both men and screamed out for a rerun.
Williams ran out a majority points winner that night in a bout which could just as easily have been scored a draw had the preoccupied Pierre Benoist taken the evening off. Since then “The Punisher” has been out of the garage just once, in an anticlimactic summer date with Kermit Cintron, a contest which looked to be simmering nicely before Cintron took an odd looking tumble from the ring in the fourth, resulting in a technical decision win for an off-key Williams.
Martinez has fared a little better, dethroning the much maligned middleweight kingpin Kelly Pavlik on the boardwalk in April. After commanding the fight’s opening third, Sergio had to withstand a resurgent rally from the Ohio man throughout the middle rounds. Catching his second wind in the ninth, he sliced open Pavlik’s face, regaining sufficient impetus to carry him home to a gritty decision victory.
Now the duo meet again in a bout which has fans, experts and bookmakers hopelessly divided. A venus flytrap of a match, it’s the type of encounter which will lure new followers in and prevent them from ever leaving.
Martinez, 45-2-2 (24) is the middleweight boss. A fast and spiteful counter puncher, he appeared destined at one point to be remembered as a hard luck story, after fighting like a demon twice last year, only to come home empty handed. An athletic specimen, he owns a tremendous engine, slick moves and the sort of gumption which separates classes. The older man by six years at 35, he rates sixth pound for pound with Ring Magazine.
Williams, 39-1 (27) is the Candyman of welterweights, the guy who Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather rarely seem to mention. Freakishly tall and long, he gave up chasing marquee names at 147 lbs long ago, upping sticks to chase down anyone brave enough to argue with him. A gangling pressure fighter, he’s old school to the core, a rare talent who you feel would have excelled in any era. He rates second at middleweight behind the German, Felix Sturm yet one spot above Martinez in the pound for pound stakes thanks to his previous exploits against the likes of Antonio Margarito, Martinez, Cintron, Carlos Quintana and Ronald “Winky” Wright.
Despite the middleweight crown being up for grabs, a catch-weight of 158 lbs has been stipulated at the behest of the Williams camp. A shrewd attempt at brinksmanship, it’s a plot which could yet backfire. Forced to ensure a tad more hardship to make weight than he’d probably have liked, Martinez could react with fury once the bell sounds. There have been whispers that “Maravilla” has toiled to reduce his fighting mass this time around and has jettisoned in from more than two stones north. Boiling down in such a manner can allow a fighter to begin strongly, wielding unusual power before tiring late.
Williams claims he’ll have a gameplan sketched out for him in the rematch, after an opponent switch left both men with only three week’s notice before their initial meeting. Under the expert tutelage of trainer George Peterson, Williams will surely look to box more from behind an improved defence. He’ll need to be especially wary of the Martinez right hook, which hit its mark more often than a German penalty taker. When sharpshooting with his right, both jabbing and hooking, Williams managed to put himself into the box seat; the teeth jangling rights he ended up swallowing tended to crash home whenever he drew for his big left, yet he can’t expect to win this one using one lever.
Martinez will do his usual thing, shuffling out of range with his quick feet and his arms by his side, feinting with his lead right hand in order to keep his man guessing over whether he’s going to punch or slip further out of range. He’ll be quick off the blocks and he’ll be strong down the stretch. The more dynamic of the two (Williams can at times appear slightly one paced), he has the ability to accelerate through he gears should he begin to feel the fight drifting away from him.
For me, Williams has the tools to gain the upper hand and maintain it until the end, if he can stick to a well ordered and disciplined blueprint. Playing the percentages with his left a bit more whilst ruling the argument with his right, he can pressurise Martinez into having to chase rounds, perhaps opening holes in the Argentinean’s defence.
In another entertaining battle, I pick him to do just that. He has the finer pedigree of the pair and showed in the revenge win over Carlos Quintana (the only man to have beaten him thus far) that he can make improvements second time around the block. Victory would set up a rubber match in 2011; manna from heaven for boxing watchers hankering for competitive action.
Oddsmakers are baffled with this one, quoting both men at around evens. Value can be found in selecting a points win for either with Williams at 7/4 and Martinez at 13/8 (make sure to cover it with a few bob on the draw at 20/1, whichever way you choose to go ).
British fans need to navigate to Primetime in order to catch the action, Sky having passed up the chance to televise a fight which looks a certainty to entertain.
Leave a Reply
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Duotone by Automattic.
